A Year's Leap: From Amoco To Aon Center

December 31, 1999|By J. Linn Allen.

Taking advantage of millennium celebration hoopla, insurance giant Aon Corp. moved up its renaming of the former Amoco Building by a year and officially dubbed the city's second-tallest office tower Aon Center on Thursday.

Though Aon won't complete its move into the 80-story building at 200 E. Randolph St. until fall 2001, the company decided this week to speed up the renaming. An earlier plan called for the change to occur Jan. 1, 2001.

"Renaming this property the Aon Center is particularly appropriate during the millennium celebration as it symbolizes our company's worldwide growth and our commitment to our Chicago roots," said Aon Chairman Patrick Ryan in a statement.

By unveiling signs on the property the company may also be aiming to maximize its public exposure to the crowds celebrating downtown--the granite-clad structure soars above the northern edge of Grant Park--and watching celebrations on TV.

Aon said in September it would move its headquarters from 123 N. Wacker Drive to the former Amoco Building, subleasing more than 500,000 square feet of space in the 2.5 million-square-foot colossus from BP Amoco PLC.

The oil company has been vacating much of its space in the building since Amoco Corp. was taken over by British Petroleum PLC a year ago to become London-based BP Amoco.

Aon spokesman John Roskopf noted that the building's prospective name change was so widely known that making it official was a sensible course, and timing it for the millennium celebrations was a bonus. He said Blackstone Real Estate Partners, the New York-based owner of the building, agreed to the accelerated change.

Roskopf said Aon, which has 4,500 employees in the Chicago area in a dozen locations, will consolidate its workplaces during the next two years to three sites--the new Aon Center, the city's North Side and in Glenview. Initial plans call for 1,800 workers to be at the Aon Center, he said.